I think by now most of us can spot a double standard when we see one. So let me try two out on you. In what situation is it acceptable to denounce an MP or parliamentary candidate as ‘not very British’ or even someone who ‘doesn’t get our values, our culture, or our history’. When it is said by a Reform candidate about an MP from an ethnic minority? Or when Jeevun Sandher MP says it about Matt Goodwin, the Reform party candidate for Gorton and Denton?

Doubtless you have already guessed the correct answer. The above phrase was used this week by Labour’s Sandher to denounce Goodwin, and as a result it has passed without any serious comment. By contrast, if Goodwin had described Sandher in similar terms I think we can all agree that the news cycle would have stopped (even Jeffrey Epstein would have fallen off the front pages) and Labour MPs would be gearing up to talk about Enoch Powell again.

Defra has come to the conclusion that our countryside risks becoming ‘irrelevant’ in a multicultural society

Allow me to try one more double standard on you. In what situation is it acceptable to say that an area of Britain is ‘too black’? Would it be acceptable to say it about a town anywhere in England? Or would it be acceptable to go to a country in Africa and return saying that, all things considered, the place needs rather more white people if it is going to be an acceptable, indeed desirable,........

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